Level 1 Artillery Blueprint

After thinking for a moment, Li Ye nodded.

"Alright. Have their lord come over."

Before long, the Lord of Azure arrived in an off-road vehicle.

The vehicle still stopped three hundred meters from Tomorrow, and when the door opened, a middle-aged man with an amputated left arm slowly stepped out.

After seeing his appearance clearly, Li Ye prepared to take the lifting platform to the surface and speak with him.

Old Zhou hurriedly reached out to stop him.

"A-Li, that man might not be the Lord of Azure. This could be a trap! For safety's sake, you shouldn't show yourself. We can find someone to impersonate you instead."

Li Ye smiled and waved a hand, signaling for him to relax.

Old Zhou and the others might not have known, but Li Ye himself was perfectly aware.

The intelligence had previously mentioned that the Lord of Azure had lost his left arm due to severe injuries. That middle-aged man was indeed the real one.

Since the other party had already shown sufficient sincerity, it would have been hard to justify not meeting him personally.

Out on the plains, the two lords stood face-to-face, with their respective Mobile Cities in the distance behind them.

The middle-aged man extended his hand first.

"I'm Li Jin, Lord of Azure."

"Tomorrow. Li Ye." Li Ye shook his hand.

Li Jin then explained his purpose.

"We want freshwater," he said. "We haven't found a water source these past few days, and we're almost at our limit. There used to be plenty of freshwater in our Water Tower, but a few days ago, because—"

As he spoke, he caught himself and hurriedly coughed a few times, pretending nothing had happened. He did not continue.

Li Ye could not help smiling faintly.

In truth, the other man had no idea that Li Ye knew exactly what place they had attacked, why he had lost his arm, why their Water Tower had been damaged, and what resource points they had recently taken.

"We currently have enough freshwater reserves. We can sell you some," he replied. "It would be best if you trade iron ore for it."

Li Jin let out a long breath of relief.

"Alright." He nodded. "We recently captured a mine and excavated quite a bit of ore there."

After some bargaining, Li Ye traded 600 units of freshwater for 300 units of iron ore and 50 units of saltpeter.

As the two sides exchanged supplies, Li Jin inadvertently spotted the Falcon Assault Rifles carried by Old Zhou and the others.

"Level 1 Firearms? You actually have something this good?" he asked in surprise. "We only have ordinary guns. Killing monsters on a normal day takes quite a bit of effort."

Filled with envy, he seemed to think of something and said hesitantly.

"Could you perhaps..."

Li Ye smiled faintly.

"I can sell them to you. One hundred units of iron ore each."

Li Jin's face instantly darkened.

"Level 1 Firearms consume a lot of iron ore to make, but at most they only take around fifty or sixty units. Your price is outrageous!" he said. "Can't you make it cheaper?"

"Ninety units of iron ore each, then. That's as low as I can go."

"..."

After another round of bargaining, Li Jin saw that Li Ye refused to budge. He hesitated for a long while, then sighed softly, as though he had made a difficult decision.

"How about this?" He took something from his pocket.

Li Ye focused his eyes on it, then froze.

Frost Cannon — Blueprint

Item Name: Frost Cannon

Item Level: Level 1

Effect: Striking a target inflicts a freezing effect and also makes it more vulnerable.

Crafting Requirements: 300 units of Frost Ore (Level 1), 1 Frost Crystal (Level 1)

Note: Frost Cannon shells require 10 units of Frost Ore and 1 unit of gunpowder to manufacture.

He rubbed his eyes in disbelief.

He had never expected the other party to possess a Level 1 Artillery blueprint.

Li Jin stated his conditions.

He would give this Level 1 Artillery blueprint to Li Ye. In exchange, Li Ye had to give him six Assault Rifles, three thousand rounds of ammunition, and an additional 300 units of freshwater.

In truth, Li Jin was extremely reluctant to part with this blueprint. After all, the artillery on Azure was only of ordinary grade.

He had happened upon this blueprint on an elite monster's corpse three months ago, and he had been ecstatic at the time. Yet over the past three months, no matter how hard he searched, he had been unable to find a Frost Mine.

Rather than wait around endlessly, he might as well trade the blueprint for a tangible improvement.

Li Ye agreed almost without hesitation.

After all, Level 1 Artillery would provide an enormous increase to a Mobile City's firepower.

He immediately took out the five Assault Rifles and over one thousand rounds of ammunition he had on hand. Then, using the iron ore Li Jin had just given him, he produced one more Assault Rifle and the remaining ammunition, gathered the required amount, and handed it over.

Although Li Jin had shown considerable sincerity, Li Ye remained cautious. Before handing over the Assault Rifles, he deliberately removed several parts.

Not only that, during the exchange, he specifically arranged for Old Zhou and the others to stand beside the Heavy Machine Gun and artillery.

Li Jin did not seem particularly bothered. After all, this was the wilderness, where human hearts were impossible to predict. Even he was wary of others.

"I should remind you that Frost Ore can only be produced by rare ore veins like Frost Mines," Li Jin said. "Frost Crystals only occur alongside Frost Mines, and the chance of finding them is extremely low. Sometimes, even if you find a Frost Mine, you still might not be able to dig up a Frost Crystal."

Li Ye nodded.

He knew that already, but with the Intelligence System, finding a Frost Mine should be easier.

Once the trade was completed, Li Jin left with his people.

With a roar, Azure slowly started up and soon disappeared from Li Ye and the others' sight.

Li Ye tucked the blueprint into his clothes with satisfaction.

He was quite pleased with this trade.

In fact, trade between Mobile Cities was highly beneficial.

Both sides could exchange resources and Level 1 Items that the other needed, fulfilling their respective needs and increasing their strength.

However, such transactions had to be founded on mutual trust, or at least sufficient sincerity from both sides.

Over the following period, Li Ye arranged for his people to continue mining at the mine.

This mine was not large, and Li Ye had already assigned extra manpower to it, so it was fully excavated in an hour and a half.

Li Ye tallied the mining results.

This time, they had mined a total of 230 units of iron ore, 49 units of saltpeter, and 23 units of copper ore.

Li Jin had originally traded him 300 units of iron ore, but after Li Ye made an Assault Rifle and the remaining ammunition needed for the exchange, only a little over 100 units remained.

Adding the iron ore left in the warehouse and the iron ore dropped by the Snake People corpses, he now had over 400 units of iron ore again.

Li Ye arrived at the Production Workshop and began operating it.

He no longer had any Falcon Assault Rifles on hand and needed to make more. Now that he had saltpeter, he could process it into gunpowder to make artillery shells. In addition, the Heavy Machine Gun was nearly out of ammunition and needed to be resupplied.

Although he wanted to upgrade Tomorrow's City Components, replenishing their armed firepower was more important for now.

Craft Assault Rifles and their ammunition, manufacture artillery shells, manufacture machine gun ammunition.

Before long, his iron ore count had fallen back to single digits.

Li Ye could not help sighing.

"Ah, iron ore really never seems to be enough."